Founders

Sylvia Day

Sylvia Day is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over a dozen novels. A former Russian linguist with the US Army Military Intelligence, she now writes full-time. After spending a few months wondering why there was no RWA erotic romance special interest chapter, she bit the bullet and opened a Yahoo loop. Within days, it had over 200 interested members.
The rest, as they say, is history.

Shayla Black

Originally from Southern California, Shayla Black now lives in the Southwest, juggling the roles of writer, mother, wife and all around laundress. Shayla enjoys reading, obsessively studying Harry Potter, watching Trading Spaces, doing step aerobics and listening to an eclectic blend of music.

The author of over a dozen sizzling contemporary and historical romances, Shayla has belonged to Romance Writers of America since 1989 and has served elsewhere as chapter President, Vice President and Published Author Liaison.

Nancy Cochran

A native San Franciscan, Nancy Cochran works for a telecommunications company writing Methods and Procedures. When she’s not working, she’s writing or reading or spending time out with her family.

Published in poetry, Nancy is a long time RWA member and volunteer, on both the National and Local levels.

Nancy is a PRO member and is excited about the Passionate Ink chapter.

Maya Reynolds

Maya Reynolds lives in a small town in north Texas. Sheâ€™s had a varied career including stints as a teacher, stockbroker and member of a county-wide mobile crisis intervention team. In addition to writing erotic romance, sheâ€™s sold numerous non-fiction articles and short romantic fiction. Her first full-length erotic romance sold to NAL (a division of Penguin) for release in 2007.

Leigh Wyndfield

Leigh Wyndfield is the pseudonym for Passionate Ink’s first Treasurer. She spends her time away from writing reading anything she can get her hands on, watching movies, and skiing or hiking, depending on the season. Unable to find romances that take place on other worlds, she started writing her own. Her books have won awards and finaled in published author contests, including the PRISM, More Than Magic, the Holt Medallion and the Dream Realm Award.

Jeanne Laws

A former high school English teacher turned writer, Jeanne Laws currently lives in Southern California. When she is not reading or writing, she can be found with her three kids, two dogs, horse, and her very accommodating husband. As Passionate Ink’s first Publications Editor, Jeanne designs and edits both the Passionate Ink Newsletter and Book Notes.

Jaci Burton

Jaci Burton is an award-winning, multi published author with over twenty-five sizzling and passionate erotic romance books. Jaci writes in multiple genres, including paranormal, contemporary, futuristic and fantasy. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband Charlie who inspires her to create stories about sexy, stubborn alpha males who don’t always do what the heroine wants them to.

She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Romance Writer’s Ink, and EPIC.

Alisa McKnight

Alisa lives in the Sonoran desert with her beloved husband, her two spoiled Siamese, his bossy New York alley cat, the spirit of a beloved friend and familiar now gone through the door into summer, more action figures than any adult needs, and a gaggle of plush people presided over by Crispin Makepeace, the biggest moose stuffed toy you ever saw. When she’s not writing high-stakes stories with steaming sex, you’ll find her reading, hiking, building a future in which she has horses again, or just absorbing the magic of an Arizona sunset.

Angela Knight

Angela Knight is a USA Today bestselling author for Berkley. She’s written three novels for that company, and is under contract for three more. Her last book, Master of the Moon, spent three weeks on the USA Today list in May, 2005.

In 2005, Hot Blooded, a Berkley anthology featuring one of Angela’s novellas, won the Borders Group Bestselling Anthology of the Year. She also won Best Erotic Romance from Romantic Times Bookclub the same year.

Melissa Schroeder

Born to an Air Force family at an Army hospital Melissa has always been a little bit screwy. She was further warped by her strange family. Her love of romance novels developed after accidentally picking up a Linda Howard book. After becoming hooked, she read close to 300 novels in one year, deciding that romance was her true calling instead of the literary short stories and suspenses she had been writing. After many attempts, she realized that romantic comedy, or at least romance with a comedic edge, was where she was destined to be. Influences in her writing come from Nora Roberts, Jenny Cruise, Susan Andersen, Amanda Quick, Jayne Anne Krentz, Julia Quinn, Christina Dodd, and Lori Foster. Since her first release in 2004, Melissa has had close to 20 short stories, novellas and novels released with six different publishers in a variety of genres and time periods. Those releases included, The Hired Hand, a 2005 Eppie Finalist for Contemporary Romance and Tempting Prudence, a 2005 CAPA finalist for short erotic romance. Her contemporary, A Little Harmless Sex became an international best seller in June of 2005.